Obama has defended the slow progress in US Visa reform, saying change takes time.
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26 October 2010
Obama defends failed US Visa and immigration reform efforts
On Monday, President Obama has defended his unsuccessful efforts to revamp US Visa and immigration policies on a Spanish-language radio programme saying that change takes time.
Obama said that even after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, it took years more for African Americans to achieve many of their goals, saying that Latino voters should blame Republicans for obstructing reform.
"Let me say this as an African American: We worked for decades on civil rights," Obama said. "It didn't come after two years. People had to march, they had to have their heads beaten, they had fire hoses put on them . . . Change isn't easy. It doesn't happen overnight."
President Obama was speaking in Los Angeles with Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo, a well-known Univision Radio personality that claims he was born in Mexico and entered the US in 1988 by illegally crossing the border, gaining legal residence later.
Many Latino voters have grown disenchanted over the signature issue of US Visa and immigration policy, and the President is heavily courting Latino voters in the final days of the fall political campaigns.
Many people want the federal government to provide a pathway to American citizenship for millions of undocumented workers already in the US, while others insist the country needs tighter border controls.
The American Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people with their ESTA application to the US Embassy.
